Sunday, July 12, 2015

Week 27 - New York Bound

What a busy week! Dottie was barely out the door and I was already in pre-trip mode for my next adventure - the long overdue redo of the NYC/RI trip I had to cancel 2 years ago when I got diverticulitis. But before I could leave I had 3 days of regular life.I started Monday with a 7:30 doctor's appointment to check my BP, which had been sky high the day I got my mammogram. Of course, it was perfectly normal but I had to wait 20 minutes after the nurse took my BP for the doctor to tell me it was fine. At least I got Rx refills out of the deal. Then Monday night was Monster Sock Night at knitting. We'd done this last year and I absolutely loved it. Everyone brings their leftover sock yarn, we throw it in the middle of the table and start matching up yarns. It was as fun as last time and I left with 2 baggies of matched scraps for 2 ultra satisfying to knit pairs of monster socks. Tuesday was a relatively normal day among all the others. After swimming I stopped at Wal-Mart to buy pants for the trip since I had nothing that fit and had already picked up shirts last week. Then I did the final chores leftover from the weekend, leaving me just a small load of laundry and the actual packing to do on Wednesday with the always last thing to do watering of plants and changing of cat boxes. Fast forward to Wednesday night when I got all that done and had my suitcase at the door so I could load it on Thursday.As usual, I was leaving for the airport directly from work so had my suitcase in the car when I left Thursday morning. Since I had gotten everything done the night before my morning was pretty stress free and felt normal, which was nice because this is a longer time away than I usually do for a RI trip. I worked all morning, had lunch with Layton then drove to the airport, arriving in good time and finally relaxing once I was waiting at the gate. The flights were uneventful (what more can you ask for when flying?) and I arrived on time. John picked me up in a Zip Car and we were at his apartment by midnight. I loved his place! It was so John and super comfy. We stayed up until 2:00 chatting and I slept like a rock until John woke me up to start our day.John is a member of MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) so we could get in at 9:30, an hour before the museum was open to the public. We looked at the one early open exhibit then sat in the courtyard chatting until the rest of the museum opened. John is perfect to do a museum with because we both are quick about it - glancing around the room and only stopping to read a few things of particular interest. We were both starving so were the first people seated when the restaurant on the 5th floor opened. We sat right against the railing overlooking the courtyard we'd vegged in earlier and had an absolutely delicious lunch. Mine was Parmesan custard on an arugula salad. Yum! We then hit the gift shop where I found lots of fun things for stockings and my upcoming swap on Ravelry.

I wanted to see the art installation at Madison Square Park, Fata Morgana, so we headed there on the bus, which is always fun because you can see the sights while getting where you're going. It was so fun! We checked it out then got a chocolate shake from Shake Shack and sat on a bench enjoying the weather and watching people checking out their reflections in the artwork. We even saw Chelsea Clinton walk by. Cool. From there we went to the Indian spice store (more stocking stuffers) then went down to the river near the Brooklyn Bridge to hang out until dinner time. John's friend Eileen, whom I'd met a few summers ago, biked down to meet us and chatted until we left for dinner. Another friend of John's, Sarah, her sister and nephew were meeting us at Mission Chinese, which is a cool, trendy Chinese restaurant with a celebrity chef. They were nice and everything was delicious so it was a great end to the day. Well, there was a subway ride home but otherwise, we were done. We were both tired after our short sleep and busy day.

Saturday was the 4th and John's friend, John, was doing an architecture boat tour around the city in the afternoon so we signed up for that. It was threatening rain as we left and did rain lightly for a bit but the sun was blazing soon enough and we had a wonderful day on the water. The tour went completely around Manhattan and John (the architectural historian) was full of interesting info about all the buildings and bridges we passed. And how perfect to see the Statue of Liberty up close on the 4th. We then took John out for drinks to thank him for a fabulous tour. From there we headed home, picking up a slice of pizza on the way. We sat on his terrace with our pizza and beer and watched fireworks all over the neighborhood. What a wonderful 4th!Sunday was another travel day. After a nice breakfast, John ordered a car to take us to the Bronx train station, where I got the train to New Haven, where Deanne was picking me up. The traffic was nuts (what a good friend to offer to pick me up!) but we made it just before closing to Dee's favorite lobster roll place in Westbrook, where we ate outside overlooking a tidal pond and caught up. She dropped me at Carolyn's in the early evening for the next stage of my trip. What a great weekend and even better friends. Next step - Vermont and Montreal.